Costing Process

When City Council requested a costing (quote) for OPP service in New Liskeard they did not specify a price based on the current level of police service provided by the TSPS, but rather to "historic records of the former Town of New Liskeard".

Council has not been thorough or fair either.

• They have not requested a costing from the Temiskaming Shores Police Service to compare with the lower level of service proposed by the OPP.
• They have not requested a costing from the Temiskaming Shores Police Service to police the entire City of Temiskaming Shores, which would be very competitive with the service currently provided by the OPP in Haileybury and Dymond, as fixed costs would be spread over the entire area.   Of course a final decision on policing in Dymond or Haileybury should be left to rate payers in those communities.
• They have not determined or fully considered the total cost of disbanding the service, including up to $1.1M in staff severance costs reported by city staff.
• They have not conducted a substantive review of experiences and comments from other Ontario municipalities that have disbanded their local municipal police service to determine how their level of service and costs have changed with OPP contracts, both initially and at the time of renewal.

Many communities - even Kirkland Lake and Parry Sound have found their costs actually go up after disbanding their local police and contracting for OPP.   After the first OPP contract, they found the savings were no longer there, but neither was their municipal police because they disbanded it, so they had no choice but to pay the new higher OPP price or reduce their level of service again to keep costs down.

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